Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Frida's house and Trotsky's bathroom

I adored the visually gorgeous movie, "Frida" about Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, (what? you haven't seen it? Rent it immediately!) so I wanted to visit the house where they lived in Mexico City. It was actually Frida's childhood home and parts of the movie were filmed there.



I was not allowed to take any photos inside the house, but found a few of Frida and Diego, in the house, to post. The garden, where photos were allowed was beautiful and very, very peaceful with birds chirping and flitting around. It was a beautiful sunny day and the blue of the house was brilliant.
Ray was feeling poorly the morning we chose to visit Frida's house, so he stayed in bed and Muriel and I hired a driver to take us to the quiet, shady suburb where the house is. There were a number of both Frida's and Diego's paintings on display, as well as some of Frida's wonderful, embroidered clothing. Diego's studio has been preserved and the kitchen looks as it did. I loved the colorful tiles and dishes and Diego and Frida's names spelled out in tiny stones high up on the kitchen wall.
Frida's bedroom is upstairs in this stone section of the house. Her bed, which figures quite prominently in the movie, is there. Because of her injuries, suffered in a trolley accident in her youth, she spent a great deal of her life in this bed, where, flat on her back in a body cast, she painted self portrait after self portrait of her reflection on the mirror above the bed. Seeing it was very poignant. It seemed very small and fragile.



When we left Frida's house, our driver asked if we would like to see Leon Trotsky's house, which is mere blocks from Frida's. It was in his Mexico City house that the Russian Revolutionary was assassinated and the house has been turned into a museum. It was there that I was suddenly, and quite viciously, attacked by the same ailment that had kept Ray back at the hotel. Some people call it "Montezuma's Revenge". We call it "The Trotskys"—now.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your pictures of Frida's house. I fell in love with that movie, too. Hope you recovered from the "Trotskys"!

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  2. Okay, I ordered Frida from NetFlix.

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  3. Oh what fun...I haven't surfed the blogs in ages, so I've just had a ball poring over your posts of the past two weeks or so. I LOVE the junco, and watched Frida (again) while working on the background for my piece in the FFAC Reverse Auction. I know that when I look at that quilt, I'll always remember making it to "Frida."

    And the CD....is the Jeff Buckley song Hallelujah? I LOVE IT... I heard it on West Wing a few years ago... it took about a year to track down the artist and album, which I promptly bought. OK, I'm dating myself. I remember Suzanne, and it's a CD not an album, eh?

    Cheers, Sarah

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  4. This is FAB, thanks so much for sharing it! Love it when some of my "itchy feet syndrome" gets scratched, even if vicariously through someone else's eyes!

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